


Book Commentary: The Hunger Games

by mlmcg12



Series: Book Blog Transcripts [17]
Category: Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins
Genre: Cross-Posted on WordPress, F/M, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-21
Updated: 2020-01-31
Packaged: 2021-03-16 02:21:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,454
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28948854
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mlmcg12/pseuds/mlmcg12
Series: Book Blog Transcripts [17]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2123052





	1. Chapter 1

  * Note to self: This is totally an awful pun, but don’t actually read _The Hunger Games_ while your stomach is growling.
  * Even after recasting Buttercup the cat in the movies, they still couldn’t make him look as butt-ugly as Katniss thinks he is.
  * District 12 is coal mining. I feel like I’m going to need a chart to keep track of all of this.
  * Non-electric electric fence. How long is Katniss going to be lucky about that?
  * So, Mr. Everdeen’s dead, and Katniss is practically the breadwinner of the family because of Mrs. Everdeen’s depression following his death in the mining accident.
  * Anybody else headcanon that Katniss is autistic because she’s not that great with social cues? First instance: kid!Katniss randomly blurting out seemingly treasonous shit about the Capitol without knowing that was, you know, treason, only stopping after scaring her mom shitless too many times. 
    * Honestly, if this is actual canon without most people noticing, Katniss would be a lot better representation for people like me than, say, shitty stereotypes like Sheldon Cooper from _The Big Bang Theory_.
  * I know a lot of people focus on the love triangle instead of the revolution against the government, but if I had to pick a side on that, I wouldn’t pick Gale. He’s kind of an ass.
  * Oh, the Effie impressions. She’s ridiculously over-the-top, but I love her.
  * So, Prim looks more like the mom, blonde and all, and Katniss looks more… Mediterranean? like the dad and not all white bread like the movie.
  * Sure, Gale and Katniss could abandon their families and run away, but where would they run to? How would they get into the Districts that the Capitol aren’t too poor to care about? And District 13 is *supposed to* not exist anymore.
  * Katniss sucking at social cues instance: Not getting that Gale has a crush on her and wants to start a family with her.
  * No, but seriously. Let one of those other girls who all fawn over Gale have the jerk.
  * OK, but why did Greasy Sae get cut from the movies? And Madge?
  * The reaping system is totally fucked up. (Not to mention the whole Hunger Games thing.) 
    * Also: “Say you are poor and starving as we were.” Oh, you mean like most of District 12?
  * Speaking of “why isn’t Madge in the movies?” When Katniss is talking about Gale constantly ranting about the reaping system, she… actually briefly mentions the gold pin that Madge eventually gives Katniss to be her token in the Games.
  * “Hey, a bunch of kids fighting to the death on live TV is so much fun to watch, right District peeps?” according to the people of the Capitol.
  * Of course Prim, with her one entry into the pool of possible kids to get reaped, is that year’s female tribute.




	2. Chapter 2

  * No, but seriously, how unlucky was Prim to get chosen her first year in the pool for being a tribute?
  * No, but seriously #2: Backing up to when Katniss was describing how hearing Prim get picked made her feel like the time the wind was knocked out of her when she fell out of a tree while hunting: How the hell did a fall like that not make Katniss break her neck or some other bone or make her smash her head on something?
  * And here’s the famous bit where Katniss decides to take her sister’s place.
  * Effie thinks Katniss is out to steal Prim’s glory? Oh, hun, you’ve definitely been in the Capitol too long.
  * Haymitch is both the Panem equivalent of the child-TV-star-turned-washed-up-drunkard and the guy who drinks to forget all the likely PTSD symptoms from the horror show that is the Hunger Games.
  * Katniss… hates Peeta for being nice to her after her dad died? I’d say mistaking genuine kindness for pity was weird if I didn’t think this was another one of those instances of Katniss is probably autistic.
  * One of the background details that should not have been cut from the movie: Mrs. Everdeen’s depression getting so bad after Mr. Everdeen’s death that she couldn’t take care of Katniss and Prim to the point that they were at risk of being sent to foster care? Or an orphanage?
  * More random background info: Katniss’ birthday is May 8th.
  * From a business standpoint, I see how Peeta’s mom didn’t want Katniss scrounging around the bakery for food because Katniss couldn’t pay, but she was kinda bitchy about it.




	3. Chapter 3

  * OK, I’m just putting this out there, I will be reviewing the prequel that’s coming out this spring. I’ll probably read it in hardcover when my family gets it sort of as my own personal readthrough, and then get my own copy for rereading, including a review readthrough here, but when it comes out in paperback (just because I like paperback copies whenever possible because hardcovers are too clunky for me, and I don’t want the dust jackets to get lost and/or ripped when I take them off to get them out of the way if it’s a hardcover book).
  * Anyway, back to this book… How long has it been since I’ve actually touched this book?
  * So, the Justice Building is fancy as fuck, and it’s one of the few not-poor areas in District 12.
  * Katniss Is Totally Autistic Point Number I’ve Lost Track Already: Katniss loves the feel of velvet, and her petting the velvet armrests of the chair is totally stimming.
  * Katniss is the breadwinner in the family since Dad’s dead, and now she’s gotta tell Prim how to help Mom survive because of the Huge Possibility Katniss Won’t Survive, Or So She Thinks.
  * And here’s Madge giving Katniss the OG Mockingjay pin. That’s totally not an important bit of plot to put in something like a movie adaptation, right?
  * Have I mentioned I don’t like Gale? Have I also mentioned I’ve always thought he was a bit of a dick?
  * Random Horrifying Backstory From Previous Hunger Games: Apparently, one year, half the Tributes died from cold-related… shit because they couldn’t make fires to keep warm because the Game Makers conveniently “forgot” to add wood to the arena.
  * Gale Is Totally A Dick Number I’ve Lost Count On This, Too: When he’s giving Katniss advice for survival, he says Katniss is a great hunter already. And then he’s basically like, “Yeah, so? Same difference, right?” when Katniss is like, “But I’ve never actually had to kill, y’know, _people_.”
  * I know she Doesn’t Actually Show Up In Person Yet, but can I just say Johanna Mason’s fucking awesome? Just from the whole “being a big softie leading up to the games and then being vicious in the arena” thing?
  * A 250-mile-an-hour train? Yeah, that’s crazy.
  * The Capitol is somewhere in the modern-day Rockies (OK, yeah, I’m going with the general consensus that it’s somewhere in Colorado, probably Denver). And District 12 is in the modern-day Appalachians, and given the whole coal production thing, that’s _probably_ somewhere in, like, West Virginia or western Pennsylvania?
  * So, all the lessons in District 12 schools are coal-related. Plus the regular dose of propaganda from the Capitol.
  * OK, so jabberjays are basically spy-parrot-jaybirds for the Capitol. And after the people in the districts gave them Way Too Much Bogus Info, they got left to mate with wild mockingbirds, they mockingjay got created. 
    * I never thought I’d have an excuse to say spy parrots, but here we are.
  * So, Effie has to keep reminding Katniss and Peeta to slow down on eating, because Not Having Enough Food totally Isn’t A Thing in the Capitol.
  * I’m dying over here because of Katniss eating with her hands out of spite when Effie’s like “at least y’all have better manners than last year’s kids” (also because Effie’s _really fucking clueless_ about kids from District 12 being too poor to have much food and the kids from the year before just devouring everything).
  * OK, here we go. Here we fucking go. The part where a handful of the reapings are talked about, and a few of the other tributes are introduced. “And most hauntingly, a twelve-year-old girl from District 11. She has dark brown skin and eyes, but other than that, she’s very like Prim in size and demeanor.” How the fuck did people complain about Amandla Steinberg being cast as Rue because “they didn’t imagine Rue as black?” _Do they not realize that there are ways to describe people as black without outright saying the words “this person is black?”_
  * And Effie’s still over here Not Amused by Haymitch always being drunk. I mean, she’s right about alcoholism not being a healthy coping mechanism, but at this point, I don’t think she gets that surviving the Hunger Games is super-traumatic.



**Author's Note:**

> See also https://mmcgui12sbookblog.home.blog/


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